The most entertaining part of Big Love is that things are continually getting worse and worse for the Hendrickson clan. Bill’s meddling in the issues of the Compound over the first three seasons has created a tangled mess of conflict, not just for him, but for his whole family. It seems that everyone that comes into contact with Bill seems to have some sort of tragedy befall them. “Under One Roof” was like watching the train wreck of bad things from this season start to happen.
The worst thing in “Under One Roof” happened to poor Albie and Dale. It surprised me that Dale had somehow been okay with Albie’s extreme creepiness, but he always seemed more preoccupied with the fact that what he was in some way wrong or sinful. I’m not sure if he loved Albie as much as he loved him, but there was something genuine in their relationship that’s not seen to much on the show. It was only a matter of time before their secret would be found out, but I never imagined Dale would kill himself over it. When Bill revealed to him that he knew his secret, I really wanted Bill to reveal his own. While the two are apples and oranges, I do think it might have helped Dale to know he wasn’t the only one with a secret.
I do have to give props to Nikki for telling Albie she’d love him either way. I think she has a right to be angry at her parents for destroying her childhood (or lack thereof) and turning her into who she is. I have to say, I laughed pretty hard when Nikki showed up in the short skirt with her hair pulled to the side. She views herself as some sort of tramp, yet her view is about 25 years out of date. Perhaps saving Carol Lynn from a sealing will be what finally wins the girl’s favor, but more importantly, it was the first time Nikki has fought for something instead of playing a role in the plans of someone else.
The other big revelation of the night was the return of Anna, pregnant with Bill’s premarital baby. I can’t blame her for wanting to raise the child on her own outside of the Hendrickson home, but it was pretty fishy how quickly she went from refusing any involvement with them to asking for money in exchange for visitation rights. When the sister-wives went to visit her in the restaurant when Bill had done the same was one of the funnier parts the episode. Barb’s anger over the whole issue is completely justified, and it was great for her to finally hit a shot at Bill for being so selfish and always coming up with a testimony for all of his mistakes. Also coming out of this: Bill married Margie after she got pregnant.
Lastly, we had the Adventures of Frank, Lois and Ben in Mexico, where they were attempting to buy some birds. It’s a pretty boring story, where Ben is finally happy to be accepted again and Frank threatens a gay Mexican bird smuggler, and then BANG! the Greens return. They are two of the creepiest villains in all of television, and they’re return cannot mean anything good. This story has bored me all season, but with the Greens, I’m hoping that Ben steps up and saves the day, and becomes the heroic version of what his father is.
“Under One Roof” was an episode of revelations and big events. The season is on the backside of it’s episodes, so I expect this all to start to build up to an epic conclusion in the coming weeks. But there’s a lot of problems that have hardly been addressed. Will exposing their polygamy be a bad idea as Margie suggested? Can they really move into the big house and truly live under one roof? Will all of this get derailed by some combination of Anna, Albie, and the Greens? One thing is for sure, Big Love has once again built up a season of great suspense that will undoubtedly continue to build to a stirring finale.
Michael’s Score: 80
Tangled Up In Wires Grade: B+
Michael
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